Music Review: Stomping Grounds, by Joseph Clinebell

While I listen to music almost constantly, and have a full 30gig Creative Zen Vision M to prove it (in lime green, thank you very much), I tend to get in ruts where I listen to the same thing over and over. Still, when someone says, “Hey check out this cool Singer Songwriter, I think you’ll like his work,” I’m usually happy to do so. I’ll listen to almost anything once, after all.

Joseph Clinebell’s first CD, Stomping Grounds, is quickly becoming one of the discs I listen to more than once. He calls his collection of mostly-guitar-and-vocals songs “road trip music,” and really that’s the best description I can think of as well. For one thing, while his music is technically on the pop side of rock, there’s a vagabond-esque quality to it stolen from folk and country, that adds depth and dimension to tunes that are essentially pretty simple, with wonderful lyrics “….as a hailstorm draws near…the imperfect falls around…”

His voice is warm, vaguely reminiscent of early Michael Stipes or John Cougar Mellencamp at his most mellow (that folksy appeal coming out, I think), and overall Stomping Grounds is extremely listenable. So far, my favorite song is “Last Dance,” but they’re all good. And yes, perfect for hopping in the car, dropping the top, and enjoying the last warm days of Fall.

What I’m Writing: MissMeliss.com

The Brief No… we started our journey on a ship at sea, so lets end it with some “Land Ahoy!” Write about the destination… the port, the land, the horizon, the future… The Excerpt ZOE (sighing) So much has changed, Basil. When we met, you were primarily a scientist, an explorer… then the war happened, […]

The Brief How frustrating is it when you have to deliver something to a deadline, only to realise afterwards what you could have done better. So this is your opportunity to re-do a challenge. Pick any of the previous 26 challenges we’ve done, and write a NEW play following that brief. I bet you’ve […]

The Brief Find an expression, an idiom, a cliche, etc…and use it as a literal impetus for the play. Perhaps write a play about an apple standing at the gate and fighting a doctor? Perhaps a monologue by one patch of grass, envyingly looking at another’s greenness? Perhaps a tree trying desperately to tell a dog […]

What I’m Saying: The Bathtub Mermaid

Description: #Audio. #Blog This will be our year. All of ours. Excerpt: I know I’m not the only person who was more than ready to kick 2018 out the door, and welcome in the promise of a new year. Like a brand new pad of drawing paper, a brand new spiral notebook, a brand new […]

Description: #Audio. #Blog Entenmann’s coffeecake – the taste of home. Excerpt: And more often than not, the dessert would be an Entenmann’s coffeecake. The kind with a crumb topping and pastry cheese filling. That taste, slightly metallic from the foil tray, but always just enough sweetness to temper the strongest of coffees (or the brattiest […]

Description: #Audio. #Blog Musings on trains, real and toy. Excerpt: Train whistles never sound anything but mournful. My friend Stonefish says it’s just the physics of sound, but I think it’s more. I think there’s a romanticism associated with trains that never quite leaves us. Links and References Read the text of this piece at […]